A sampler of this kind is known from DD 285190, which describes a flat sample chamber, arranged in a carrier tube, whose wall surfaces (which form the analysis surfaces) run parallel to the axis of the carrier tube. The inlet opening into the sample chamber is arranged on the side of the sample chamber facing away from the immersion end. The inlet opening extends inside an inlet duct that runs coaxially with the axis of the carrier tube and is bent over at its upper end, facing away from the immersion end, and passes through the wall of the carrier tube. Through this bent piece, the melt penetrates into the coaxial inlet duct and from there into the sample chamber. After solidification the coaxial inlet duct simultaneously constitutes a pin sample.
Since the sample chamber is formed of two halves, the gases present in the sample chamber before immersion in the melt can escape from the sample chamber through the parting lines between the two chamber halves, but the gases and other contaminants penetrating along with the melt into the sample chamber are also brought into the sample chamber and remain there as inclusions in the sample. These inclusions detract from the quality of the sample and thus the reliability of the sample analysis. The contaminants present in the sample are found not only in the interior of the sample, but also detract from the quality of the sample analysis surfaces since they arise directly in the vicinity of those surfaces. This, however, calls into question an essential advantage of flat sample chambers as compared to compact sample chambers, namely the fact that the sample analysis surface formed by the chamber wall is available for analysis almost without further processing.
A further sampler is known from GB 1,150,149 which describes, in connection with FIG. 6, a flat sample whose analysis surfaces are arranged transversely to the axis of the carrier tube. Since cooling of the sample always proceeds from the outside in (radially to the carrier tube axis), the sample analysis surfaces have different compositions in accordance with the cooling process, depending on the distance of the measurement point from the edge of the surface. With the apparatus described, it is additionally disadvantageous in terms of sampling that the sample chamber acts as a heat sink and causes rapid solidification of the sample and of the molten metal above it. This rapid solidification of the melt present in the sample chamber immobilizes in the sample the contaminants that enter the sample chamber along with the melt, and again negatively affects the analytical result. This rapid solidification process is promoted by the arrangement of the mixing chamber and sample chamber in a shared housing. The shared housing also makes it difficult to remove the sample from the sampler.
The underlying object of the present invention is to provide a sampler for molten metal which allows high-quality flat samples to be obtained and to be easily removed from the sampler.